What makes a comet 'real' to you?

I spent three hours last night tracking a tiny, unnamed comet — barely visible in the finder scope, just a smudge against the Milky Way. It’s not going to be named, won’t make headlines, probably won’t even be seen by anyone else tonight. But I felt something like kinship with it. Like it was mine. So I keep wondering: is a comet only real when someone notices it? Or does it exist fully, quietly, long before we look?